formed by ben morgenstein (simoom, francii) and john panza (simoom, francii, hilo) while bogged down with the cares of everyday living, humphry clinker's two-piece incarnation debuted with a sloppily prepared, heavily distorted set at pat's in the flats opening for team fright. ben/john traded off guitar/drum duties. this was some time in 2003. by 2004, nora hartlaub (the cassettes) was added on bass but soon left cleveland for an island. in 2005, becky goede and timmy mcnulty (the trippers) were recruited, while the line-up was rounded out by david steiner (simoom).

humphry clinker's debut CD what's the story with the knife? was released in march 2007 by erroneous exegesis records. it was recorded/engineered by todd tobias (clouds forming crowns, robert pollard, guided by voices) at waterloo studio in kent, ohio, mastered by chris keffer at magnetic north in cleveland, and produced by humphry clinker. some reviews HERE.

in summer 2007, they headed back to waterloo to begin work with todd on a new CD. the results of that session, the four-song among cutting threads ep, was released by erroneous exegesis in february 2008 in a limited run of 175 hand-stamped CDs. some reviews HERE.

timmy, becky, ben, and john maintain teaching jobs to pay for recording, drums heads, strings, and other essentials; david doubles as the band's legal representative when not freelance lawyering.